An experienced and skilled nurse attorney has surely helped a lot of RNs and LVNs when it comes to cases that may lead toward disciplinary action. Unfortunately, not all nurses were able to hire a nurse attorney as they underwent such cases.
This is the incident that happened to an LVN in 2017. At the time of the incident, she was employed as a Charge Nurse at a nursing and rehabilitation center in Beaumont, Texas, and had been in that position for one (1) year and four (4) months.
On or about April 8, 2017, while employed as a Charge Nurse at a nursing and rehabilitation center in Beaumont, Texas, LVN did the following:
- inserted an indwelling urinary catheter into a resident without a physician’s order. Subsequently, the resident was transferred to the hospital with urethral injury. LVN’s conduct may have contributed to the injury of the resident.
- failed to notify the physician of the aforementioned resident about bleeding after insertion of the urinary catheter. LVN’s conduct exposed the resident to risk of harm by depriving the physician of vital information that would be required to institute medical interventions to stabilize the resident’s condition.
- failed to document the insertion of the indwelling urinary catheter and the incident in the medical record, or in an incident report, for the aforementioned resident. LVN’s conduct resulted in an inaccurate and incomplete medical record and was likely to harm the patient in that subsequent caregivers would not have accurate and complete information on which to base their care decisions.
In response, LVN states that after an attempt of obtaining a urine sample from the intermittent catheterization as ordered by the physician, there was no urine output, no blood noted around the urethra, or no blood on return of the catheter. LVN states that being that the resident was incontinent and could not be toileted, making a nursing judgment, she inserted an indwelling (Foley) catheter. LVN states that after realizing that she needed an order for a Foley catheter, she then began to remove the catheter from the resident. LVN states that after experiencing difficulty deflating the balloon in the catheter and removing the catheter, she had another LVN assist her. LVN states that the other nurse pulled the catheter from the patient without completely deflating the balloon. LVN states that days later, the Director of Nursing (DON) conducted an investigation and met with LVN. LVN states that she told the DON she saw the copy of the telephone order signed by the nurse practitioner to collect a urine sample but did not have an order to insert a Foley catheter. LVN states that when she couldn’t deflate the balloon, she should have called the physician to transfer him to the hospital. LVN states that the next day, the DON told her that she was terminated due to not having an order for a Foley catheter and not calling the physician to transfer the resident to the hospital.
The above actions constitute grounds for disciplinary action in accordance with Section 301.452(b)(10)&(13), Texas Occupations Code, and are a violation of 22 TEX. ADMIN. CODE §217.11(1)(A),(1)(D),(1)(M)&(2)(A) and 22 TEX. ADMIN. CODE §217.12(1)(A),(1)(B),(1)(C)&(4).
The following incident and defense against the case caused the Texas Board of Nursing to place the LVN and her license into disciplinary action. She should have sought assistance from an expert nurse attorney to provide clarifications towards the case to prevent this decision imposed on her LVN license.
If you’ve ever done any errors or misdemeanor outside or during your shift as an RN or LVN, and you wish to preserve your career and your license, an experienced nurse attorney is what you need. Texas Nurse Attorney Yong J. An, an experienced nurse attorney who represented more than 150 nurse cases for RNs and LVNs for the past 16 years, can assist you by contacting him at (832) 428-5679.
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